The present invention relates to magnetic recording media, particularly rotatable recording media, such as thin film magnetic disks cooperating with a magnetic transducer head, particularly a magnetoresistive (MR) or a giant magnetoresistive (GMR) head. The present invention has particular applicability to high areal density magnetic recording media designed for drive programs having reduced flying height, or pseudo-contact/proximity recording.
Thin film magnetic recording disks and disk drives are conventionally employed for storing large amounts of data in magnetizable form. In operation, a typical contact start/stop (CSS) method commences when a data-transducing head begins to slide against the surface of the disk as the disk begins to rotate. Upon reaching a predetermined high rotational speed, the head floats in air at a predetermined distance from the surface of the disk where it is maintained during reading and recording operations. Upon terminating operation of the disk drive, the head again begins to slide against the surface of the disk and eventually stops in contact with and pressing against the disk. Each time the head and disk assembly is driven, the sliding surface of the head repeats the cyclic operation consisting of stopping, sliding against the surface of the disk, floating in the air, sliding against the surface of the disk and stopping.
For optimum consistency and predictability, it is necessary to maintain each transducer head as close to its associated recording surface as possible, i.e., to minimize the flying height of the head. Accordingly, a smooth recording surface is preferred, as well as a smooth opposing surface of the associated transducer head. However, if the head surface and the recording surface are too smooth, the precision match of these surfaces gives rise to excessive stiction and friction during the start up and stopping phases, thereby causing wear to the head and recording surfaces, eventually leading to what is referred to as a xe2x80x9chead crash.xe2x80x9d Thus, there are competing goals of reduced head/disk friction and minimum transducer flying height.
Conventional practices for addressing these apparent competing objectives involve providing a magnetic disk with a roughened recording surface to reduce the head/disk friction by techniques generally referred to as xe2x80x9ctexturing.xe2x80x9d Conventional texturing techniques involve mechanical polishing or laser texturing the surface of a disk substrate to provide a texture thereon prior to subsequent deposition of layers, such as an underlayer, a magnetic layer, a protective overcoat, and a lubricant topcoat, wherein the textured surface on the substrate is intended to be substantially replicated in the subsequently deposited layers. The surface of an underlayer can also be textured, and the texture substantially replicated in subsequently deposited layers.
Conventional longitudinal recording media typically comprise a substrate, such as aluminum (Al) or an Al alloy, e.g., aluminum-magnesium (Alxe2x80x94Mg) alloy, plated with a layer of amorphous nickel-phosphorus (NiP). Alternative substrates include glass, ceramic, glass-ceramic, and polymeric materials and graphite. The substrate typically contains sequentially deposited on each side thereof at least one seedlayer and/or at least one underlayer, such as chromium (Cr) or a Cr-alloy, e.g., chromium vanadium (CrV), a cobalt (Co)-based alloy magnetic layer, a protective overcoat typically containing carbon, and a lubricant. The underlayer, magnetic layer and protective overcoat, are typically sputter deposited in an apparatus containing sequential deposition chambers. A conventional Al-alloy substrate is provided with a NiP plating, primarily to increase the hardness of the Al substrate, serving as a suitable surface to provide a texture, which is substantially reproduced on the disk surface. Conventional practices further include forming a servo pattern on the magnetic layer thereby producing topographical nonuniformities. Such servo patterns can be formed by photolithographic or laser techniques.
In accordance with conventional practices, a lubricant topcoat is uniformly applied over the protective overcoat to prevent wear between the disk and head interface during drive operation. Excessive wear of the protective overcoat increases friction between the head and disk, thereby causing catastrophic drive failure. Excess lubricant at the head-disk interface causes high stiction between the head and disk. If stiction is excessive, the drive cannot start and catastrophic failure occurs. Accordingly, the lubricant thickness must be optimized for stiction and friction.
A conventional material employed for the lubricant topcoat comprises a perfluoro polyether (PFPE) which consists essentially of carbon, fluorine and oxygen atoms the lubricant is typically dissolved in an organic solvent, applied and bonded to the carbon overcoat of the magnetic recording medium by techniques such as dipping, buffing, thermal treatment, ultraviovlet (UV) irradiation and soaking.
The escalating requirements for high areal recording density impose increasingly greater requirements on thin film magnetic recording media in terms of coercivity, stiction, squareness, medium noise and narrow track recording performance. In addition, increasingly high areal recording density and large-capacity magnetic disks require recording heads with narrower track width and reduced gap, reduced media noise and/or smaller flying heights, i.e., the distance by which the head floats above the surface of the disk in the disk drive (head-disk interface). For conventional media design, a decrease in the head to media spacing increases stiction and drive crash.
There are various types of carbon, some of which have been employed for a protective overcoat in manufacturing a magnetic recording medium. Such types of carbon include hydrogenated carbon, graphitic carbon or graphite, and nitrogenated carbon or carbon nitride and hydrogen-nitrogenated carbon. These types of carbon are well known in the art and, hence, not set forth herein in great detail.
The drive for high area recording density and, consequently, reduced flying heights, challenges the capabilities of conventional manufacturing practices. For example, a suitable protective overcoat must be capable of preventing corrosion of the underlying magnetic layer, which is an electrochemical phenomenon dependent upon factors such as environmental conditions, e.g., humidity and temperature. In addition, a suitable protective overcoat must prevent migration of ions, such as cobalt (Co) and nickel (Ni), from underlying layers into the lubricant topcoat and to the surface of the magnetic recording medium forming defects such as asperities. A protective overcoat must also exhibit the requisite surface for wear resistance, lower stiction, and some polarity to enable bonding thereto of a lubricant topcoat in an adequate thickness.
The continuing drive for increased recording areal density in the magnetic recording media industry mandates reduction of the thickness of the protective overcoats, e.g., the carbon protective overcoat and lubricant film, since such layers constitute part of the head-medium separation. In order to satisfy the continuing drive for higher recording areal densities, the head-medium separation requirement at, for example, 100 Gb/in2 recording areal density, the protective overcoat thickness and the lubricant film thickness must be significantly reduced. However, as the thickness of such layers are reduced, significant issues arise in that the continuity and integrity of the protective and lubricant films are difficult to maintain. Consequently, imperfections, e.g., discontinuities or openings, in the protective overcoats increase leading to degradation of recording performance due to environmental attacks, such as corrosion. Thus, the corrosion problem prevents reduction of protective overcoats to a thickness less than the physical limit below which the films are no longer continuous, thereby significantly limiting reduction of the head-medium separation required to increase areal recording density.
Another problem confronting the drive for increased areal recording density leading to corrosion problems stems from the formation of topographical patterns on the substrate and/or magnetic layer which are substantially reproduced in overlying layers. In order to increase areal recording density, both bit density and track density must be increased. However, when increasing track density to a high level, e.g., greater than 100,000 tracks per inch, the track becomes too narrow to be formed by conventional servo track writing techniques. Lithographic patterning techniques have been employed to create fine topographical patterns on a disk for servo purposes, wherein the track density can be increased significantly beyond 100,000 tracks per inch. However, the formation of such topographical patterns renders the medium more susceptible to environmental attacks, because it is extremely difficult to cover the surface of the magnetic layer containing such lithographic features with a thin layer of a protective overcoat, such as carbon, in addition to a thin lubricant layer.
There are additional problems attendant upon increasing areal recording density for thin film media. Such additional problems include increased intrinsic media noise stemming from inter-grain exchange coupling as the grain size is reduced, and increased vulnerability of a magnetic surface to poisoning from residual gases in a vacuum system and process gases in forming a protective overcoat, due to the high temperature required to achieve high coercivity media.
Accordingly, there exists a need for high areal density magnetic recording media having reduced inter-granular exchange coupling and a significantly reduced head-medium separation, while simultaneously exhibiting adequate resistance to environmental attacks, such as corrosion, and reduced vulnerability to poisoning from residual and process gases, and a need for enabling methodology.
An advantage of the present invention is a high areal recording density magnetic recording medium exhibiting reduced inter-granular exchange coupling, reduced vulnerability to residual and process gases and improved corrosion resistance.
Another advantage of the present invention is a method of manufacturing a high areal density magnetic recording medium exhibiting reduced inter-granular exchange coupling, reduced vulnerability to residual and process gases and improved corrosion resistance.
Additional advantages and other features of the present invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following disclosure or may be learned from the practice of the present invention. The advantages of the present invention may be realized and obtained as particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
According to the present invention, the foregoing and other advantages are achieved in part by a magnetic recording medium comprising: a non-magnetic substrate; an underlayer over the substrate; a first magnetic layer over the underlayer; and a capping layer, consisting essentially of chromium and/or chromium oxide and having a thickness up to about 10 xc3x85, on the first magnetic layer.
Embodiments of the present invention include forming multi-underlayers and multi-magnetic layers, such as first and second magnetic layers, each containing Co and Cr, the second magnetic layer being formed between the uppermost underlayer and first magnetic layer. Embodiments of the present invention include depositing a thin capping layer of chromium directly on the first magnetic layer, as at a thickness of about 3 xc3x85 to about 10 xc3x85, such as about 3 xc3x85 to about 8 xc3x85, e.g., about 5 xc3x85 to about 8 xc3x85. A lubricant topcoat, as at a thickness of about 10 xc3x85, is deposited over the chromium capping layer. Embodiments of the present invention further include depositing a protective overcoat, such as at a carbon-containing protective overcoat, directly on the chromium capping layer, as at a thickness up to about 50 xc3x85, e.g., about 3 xc3x85 to about 45 xc3x85. Upon exposure of the chromium capping layer, as in embodiments where a protective overcoat is not employed or in embodiments comprising a protective overcoat having discontinuities, chromium is oxidized to form a chromium oxide, e.g., chromic oxide (Cr2O3), thereby ensuring protection of the underlying first magnetic layer.
Another aspect of the present invention is a method of manufacturing a magnetic recording medium, the method comprising: forming an underlayer over a non-magnetic substrate; forming a first magnetic layer over the underlayer; and depositing a chromium capping layer on the first magnetic layer.
Embodiments of the present invention further include forming a second magnetic layer containing Co and Cr between the underlayer and the first magnetic layer, and depositing a lubricant topcoat over the chromium capping layer with an optional protective overcoat therebetween.
Additional advantages of the present invention will become readily apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art from the following detailed description, wherein the embodiments of the present invention are described, simply by way of illustration of the best mode contemplated for carrying out the present invention. As will be realized, the present invention is capable of other and different embodiments, and its several details are capable of modifications in various obvious respects, all without departing from the present invention. Accordingly, the drawings and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature, and not as restrictive.